Fall Bay 2019

by Lewis Fisher

We all met bright and early, but definitely not awake, at Fulton house ready for a day of sunny climbing. The Welsh hurricanes had parted for one day to show the new members of our club the beauty of Gower rocks, and to teach them why Barter won’t shut up about climbing outdoors.
We convoyed down to Rhossili, dished out the high end club gear, and battled some cows before making it to Fall Bay, greeted by Cosford and Barter working hard to set up some impromptu routes whilst Max sat in awe eating his chicken salad. I kicked off the climbing by belaying some of the new guys up the chossiest ‘route’ I’ve ever seen on Gower, Rachel kicked off a block so large it reshaped the Welsh coastline, but made her a nice foothold to carry on and finish the route. As the afternoon went on the hardworking team of setter finished rigging up more top ropes around the corner in Lewes Castle East, including Gethsemane and Eden, whilst Max manned a fun abseil route on King Wall dangling freshers down into the angry waves below. 
The tides were not in our favour this trip (clearly good weather and good tides is too much to ask for) and so the abseil down into Giant’s Cave didn’t look hopeful, the waves were still crashing up into the roof and walls of the cave, so being lowered into it didn’t look too fun, unless freshers fancied seeing what the inside of a washing machine looked like.
The real fun of the day began when we headed down to the Devil’s Truck face to the East of Giant’s Cave. The waves were still crashing and hugged our legs many times, dampening our socks but not our spirits. Barter and Eliot set up top ropes on Lytel (S), The Nose (HS), and my personal favourite, Aschen (HVS), and everyone gave it there all, laying back and pulling hard to reach the top of this mighty face. The absolute highlight of the trip was watching everyone run in terror as a rather burly wave came rolling in towards our ledge, as we all ducked for cover from the spray Tom ‘the trooper’ Barter stood valiantly, refusing to move as he belayed Jamie up Aschen, and taking a pretty gnarly soaking in the process. Shout out to Rachel for taking a sick whipper on Aschen as she moved out from under the overhang, and screaming so loud that the guys over the other side of the Bay thought the anchor had popped.
All feeling pretty knackered we convened in the local pub, for some beers, coffee, chips, soup, and general chit chat. We all then headed home, feeling pretty pumped about the sick climbs we sent that day, and feeling pretty worried for Eliot after his car park meltdown about the location of his nuts.
Thanks for a great day out guys, here’s to many more this year.